International Cricket Captain 2000

Anyone for Cricket?

Boasting all the popular features that made the PC version click,
and a brand new graphical interface for the Playstation version,
the question arises as to what Empire have been up to for two
years. Surely collating team/player statistics and designing a new
interface haven't dominated them for that long? Time will
tell I suppose.
ICC2000 basically allows players to take control of any one of
England's county teams, handling the day-to-day running of the club
- including aspects such as training, transfers and match tactics.
The ultimate goal is the coveted County Championship, or one of the
other major competitions, such as the National League and The
Natwest Trophy. With plenty of sponsorship and support, it's
definitely laden with authenticity and that may be enough to endear
it to some cricket fans.
One of the reasons that ICC2000 seems to have taken so long is the
fact that Empire were aiming to have it ready for the start of the
professional cricket season, which is very soon to start. Perhaps
they missed 1999 and decided to tide it over until now? Whatever,
the game has been developed into what Empire call "the most
realistic, authoritative and detailed cricket management game
ever".

Going for Broke

The question I wanted answered
was whether the player could captain England, and it turns out
that yes, the Three Lions can be resigned to your control, as
can any of the other Test-playing nations. To complement this,
there is an International database of players, once again with
Wisden-verified statistics, accurate for the 2000 season. This
applies to the domestic game too, with all the latest
transfers included, such as Glen McGrath appearing at
Worcestershire and Shane Warne at Hampshire.
Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of listening to the BBC Radio
coverage of a Test Series will be pleased to know that Jonathan
Agnew is on hand to comment on the play, which you can observe in
the highlights mode. It's an important distinction to make though -
you are managing the team, not playing for them. As such you
can't observe a full match, and there's no splendiferous game
engine for it all to take place in. Still, listening to Aggers on
the highlight reel sounds good enough for me!

Maiden Over

If you're a people person, there's still hope for you, as ICC2000
will include a two-player "hot-seat" option, allowing you to
compete in First Class or one-day matches against a chum of your
choice. Quite what shape this will take it as-yet uncertain.
To go with the up-to-date statistics, there'll also be an
extensive photo gallery of the County and International players,
and photographs of most of the County and International grounds. At
its heart, this is a simulation of cricket management though, so
don't expect to be bowled over (sorry) by flashy FMV introductions
to each stadium and such. Lets leave that to EA Sports' next World
Cup title, shall we?

Conclusion

I'll personally be quite surprised if ICC2000 does well on the
Playstation. It's an ambitious move for Empire, but I'm not sure
that their target audience is as widespread as they would like.
Statisticians will thrive on it, thanks to all the Wisden
verification, and the addition of Aggers in the commentary box
should make it more homely, but I can't really predict its
popularity ahead of the release, as well rounded as the title
sounds.
Release Date - TBC